...In the United States many things influence voter turnout. For example, voting laws, they started adding more to increase the number of people voting. One way they accomplish this was by motor voter laws and this made it easier for people to register to vote. Another thing that has impact on voter attendance is demographics, like education and age. The statics show that people with a higher education and who are higher in age are more likely to vote than others. Also, constitutional requirements affect the voter turnout in America and examples of these are the fifteenth amendment, nineteenth amendment, and twenty-sixth amendment. These three amendments where put in place to have equal voting rights for all citizens. As a result, the voter turnout varies for...
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... Strategy for Presenting Content: Explanation General Purpose: To inform Specific Purpose: To inform my audience the importance of voting. Thesis Statement: Voting is essential and should be exercised by everyone because one vote can make a difference. Introduction: How many people are registered to vote? How many people are registered to vote and have voted? This is the dilemma the United States is facing today. Many people are registered to vote, but choose not to vote. It is important to exercise your voting rights because the decision our government officials make can have a huge impact on our lives. Voting in any type of election, from local races to Presidential primaries, provides an important way to voice your opinions regarding elected leaders and overall policies. In addition, voting decides our future by electing officials who reflect your own views. Therefore, voting is essential and should be exercised by everyone because one vote can make a difference. The ability to vote is one of the most cherished Constitutional Rights that many have fought, marched, and died for over the centuries. 1. Many people do not realize that voting is so vital that it can even have an impact on your daily life. Voting is the best way to express your opinion silently and privately. A lot of people might say “how can one vote make a difference?” Well, one vote can make a huge difference. 2. Every vote...
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...It is no strange fact that political participation is quintessential to a representative democracy. The United States employs this system of government in which leaders and officials are voted in by the people. However, the declining political participation in the United States over the last few decades has been an issue for quite some time now, leading to the question of whether or not democracy in America is working as effectively as it could be. This is a more serious issue than most realize, especially considering only about half of eligible voters have been participating in presidential elections and much less participation in lower level elections. The average citizen living today lives in a completely different world from what this country was since its birth; the average citizen today has many more personal and financial responsibilities to tend to, and consequently, many fail to fulfill their civic duty of political participation. This combination of a hectic lifestyle, lack of concern, or sometimes even distrust towards the government and political news leads to people not being able to make time, not interested in making time, or simply refusing to make time for political participation. There are numerous ways in which citizens can participate politically, each with varying degrees of difficulty and potential strength of messages conveyed. Voting and financial contributions to causes and campaigns are the two least sophisticated and most common forms of political...
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...and politics in general. Assuming that low turnout is a reflection of disenchantment or indifference low turnouts can lead to unequal representation among various parts of the population. During presidential elections what really counts is the Electoral College. I know where I live the winner of the Presidential election is announced before the polls...
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...Masses of votes have a great effect on public policy and government. The residents who have policy and political concerns whether the path of an issue or urgencies of public budgets that will not be heard if they do not vote. Great voter turnout is normally reflected to be desirable, though among political scientists and economists studying in public choice, the issue is still argued. It usually presumed that low turnout is a reflection of dissatisfaction, an election with very little voters may not be an exact reflection of the will of the people. On the contrary, if low turnout is a reflection of satisfaction of voters about possible winners, then low turnout is as valid as great turnout. Supporter turnout is the fraction of qualified voters who cast a vote in an election. Precisely who is qualified differs by nation, and should not be confused with the whole adult population. Extraordinary turnout is normally perceived as signs of the legitimacy of the modern system. In past decades dictators have often made-up high turnouts in platform elections for this reason. For example, Donald Trump 2016 election survey was claimed to have had 100%...
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...AP Government McKinley CHAPTER 8 Political Participation I. A closer look at nonvoting A. Alleged problem: low turnout of voters in the U.S. compared to Europe 1. Data are misleading: tend to compare turnout of voting-age population; turnout of registered voters reveals problem is not so severe 2. Real problem is low voter registration rates a) Proposed solution: get-out-the-vote drives b) But this will not help those who are not registered 3. Apathy is not the only cause of non-registration a) Registration has costs in the U.S.; there are no costs in European countries where registration is automatic b) Motor-voter law of 1993 took effect in 1995, lowered costs and increased registration throughout the country B. Voting is not the only way of participating—by other measures, Americans may participate in politics more than Europeans. C. Important question: how do different kinds of participation affect the government? II. The rise of the American electorate (THEME A: POPULAR PARTICIPATION IN ELECTIONS) A. From state to federal control 1. Initially, states decided who could vote and for which offices 2. This led to wide variation in federal elections 3. Congress has since reduced state prerogatives through law and constitutional amendment. a) 1842 law: House members elected by district b) 15th Amendment (1870): seemed to give...
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...FA13 SOCI-101-1099 Prin. of Sociology -Online- Essay Why is United States Voter Turn-out so Low Question 4) What are some explanations for why voter turnout is so low in the U.S. compared to other wealthy, literate and democratic countries? INTRODUCTION Voter turnout is the rate by which people vote in elections. The simplest way to calculate a given election's turnout rate is to compare the actual number of voters with the voting-age population. “Voter turnout in the United States is among the worlds’ lowest.” (E.S. 371) The graph below taken from an article written for the Huffington Post in 2012, illustrates how poor United States voter turnout has been as compared to other industrialized nations. Our voter turnout is less than half of the turnout in Belgium and Australia for example and it is getting worse. "Starting in the early 60's, the proportion of the population that turns out to vote in the U.S. steadily decreased, to the point where only slightly more than half the electorate voted in presidential elections in the last three decades of the 20th century" (E.S. 370) [pic] Although there are several factors that contribute to low voter turnout in the United States, three factors appear to have the most direct influence. • Voter Registration and Voting Processes in the United States make it more difficult to vote as compared to other nations. • The Decline of Social Capital in the United States • The decline in the strength...
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...Dior Hunter Bailey-Hofmann English 103 17 January 2015 Should Voting Be Mandatory? In the United States, voter turnout during elections has decreased over the last fifteen years. In 2012 the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) compared voter turnout rates, for the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, The BPC states “Despite an increase of over eight million citizens in the eligible population, turnout declined from 131 million voters in 2008 to an estimated 126 million voters in 2012 when all ballots are tallied. Some 93 million eligible citizens did not vote.” Many Americans feel like their vote doesn’t count anyway, mainly citizens who are already disadvantaged. Australian professor of Politics Lisa Hill states in her article What We’ve Seen in Australia With Mandatory Voting that, “Places with mandatory voting also have less wealth inequality, lower levels of political corruption and higher levels of satisfaction with the way democracy is working than voluntary systems.” Critics say that implementing mandatory voting is against the constitution, and what we value the most, freedom. Furthermore, Hill states “ Is being required to vote a violation of autonomy? Sure, but so is mandatory taxation, jury duty and the requirement to educate our children. Yet, these are all good ideas.” Voting should be mandatory because as American citizens we live in a democratic society where everyone should have an opinion. Although, Americans value independence and the free-will to do...
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...In the United States, voter apathy has been a consistent theme. Many eligible Americans fail to participate in elections. Between 1960 and 2008, the average voter turnout was approximately 49% to 63%. This means that close to half of the Americans do not really care which candidate will become their resident. In the United States, the lowest voter turnout was recorded in the year 1996 when only 49.1% of eligible Americans turned to vote. The low turnout in the country is an international disgrace. It is worrying that democracy in America has lost meaning. According to Fulton (16), one may not understand what happened to the government that Abraham Lincoln used to call “government of the people, for the people and by the people.” People should not be satisfied when...
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...AP Government Final Review 1. What is a political party? -a group of people joined together by common philosophies and common approaches with the aim of getting candidates elected in order to develop and implement public policy. It is characterized by an organization that is responsible to the electorate and has a role in government. 2. What are the characteristics of politics? -who gets what, when, how, and why. Politics deal with individuals and their needs, values, and attitudes will band together to form political parties. 3. What are linkage institutions? -the means by which individuals can express preferences regarding the development of public policy. Some examples: political parties, special interest groups, and the media. 4. Political parties looked like? -can be viewed as an organization, the relationship with the electorate, and a role in government. 5.What is party realignment? -the shift of party loyalty, occurred in 1932 after the country experienced the Great Depression. 6. What are the basic characteristics of political parties since 1990? -era of divided government. ? 7. How do most Americans participate in the political process? - discussing politics, registering to vote, voting in local/state/national elections, joining a specific political party, making contact with politicians, attending political meetings, contributing to political campaigns, working in a campaign, soliciting funds, and running for office. 8. What does someone running...
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...aren’t educated enough about politics to vote. In each of theses cases you can almost guarantee to experience low voter turnout . This has become a huge problem for Texas because people that are lower income, young, and less educated most likely are typically not goin to exercise their right to vote. As crazy as it may sound there are a lot of people in Texas that do not feel smart enough to vote in a election and because...
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...Make-up Position Paper - Wk4, Ch7 - Political Participation ASSIGNMENT INTRODUCTION - SUBMIT AS MAKEUP ONLY - READ FOR AIC. Dear class, Welcome to this week's Makeup Position Paper on Public Opinion and Participation. This make-up assignment is reserved for students who have failed to submit at least one, required position paper. Students must submit two makeup position papers in order to makeup for the credit lost on one required paper. If you wish to submit this assignment, please be sure to disable the TFE and topic text links before doing so. Furthermore, be sure to submit it in the proper folder. ASSIGNMENT BACKGROUND - IMPORTANT POINTS As usual, before I direct you to the week's assignment questions, there are a few remarks I would like to make regarding important, related issues and/or background material. Please consider the comments below, which touch upon a number of topics addressed in our text and which include a number of related observations taken from my own research. Purposes of Elections Firstly, one key point to remember is that elections, originally designed in order to allow citizens to select their own leaders, are also used by governments in order to build support for their policies. This is particularly true of parliamentary governments, which generally require simple plurality votes in order to pass sweeping legislation. In parliamentary governments, political parties are represented in direct proportion to the percentage of votes that they...
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...required be to vote? I think Americans should be required to vote because Many nations have good voter turn out, we could have better informed voters and we could have higher voter turnout. The first reason i think americans should be required to vote is because many nations have good voter turnout. In Document A it shows that at least 40 countries have required voting. This is...
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...Accordingly, the Center of Voter and Democracy reports that young people are much less likely to vote than older ones. From 1972 to 2012, citizens 18-29 years old turned out to vote at a rate 15 to 20 points lower than citizens 30 years and older. Women voter turnout has surpassed men’s in every presidential election since 1980. Information that is also interesting is that older women are actually less likely to vote than older men. Having the right to vote is the most important right granted by the constitution. Although explanations from some young people are they do...
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...The goal of this paper is to find evidence of the use and impact of social media in the 2012 presidential election. This is because it was reported that President Obama won the elections because of the ground operation presented by volunteers of his elections' campaigns (CNN Wire 1). I chose this topic since reports in state media indicated that the Republican Party was leading in the pre-election polls, but in the end the Democratic Party won due to the use of technological innovation (Edsall 1). An in depth analysis reveals that the presidential contest favored President Obama for using social media. Social media is increasingly an easy, fast, and effective way for people to have personal contact through technology. The intention is to prove...
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